Halloween Party

On actual Halloween, My friend and I threw a party at her place. About 99% of the decor came from my stash! It took several carloads to get it all there and back, but it was fun to decorate and the party was small but fun. 

She has this blank wall in her living room that really needed something, so we brought our wooden mantel that has been sitting on our back porch. Drape with creepy cloth, add my candelabras and some crows, and you've got a fabulously spooky mantel!

Food table with lanterns:

Pumpkin bowling!

The gang (minus my sis who is taking the pic!):

 Fairy princess, witch, whatever, vampire and Peggy Carter

Headstones!

I liked my paper fans behind the couch:

We danced around to music and played a version of truth or dare where you write a dare and a question- "What would you do if...." related to a horror movie scenario. Pretty fun. My dare was that I had to be in the closet by myself for a whole minute. We also played a game where you had to find all the pieces to the plastic skeleton that were hidden around the apartment!

These suckers were LONG!

But super fun!

I need to wear stripey tights more often- it makes me happy!

With hair down....va va voom! 

Lots of work, but a fun night!

Can't wait to have my own place to decorate!

Gaga Ooh La La

Halloween weekend I went down to the Tuckahoe YSA conference down by Harrisburg for some fun. I went to this conference last year and had fun and this year they extended it to Sunday which made it a bit easier for us driving so far (five hours!). The whole event took place at a Boy Scout camp.

I got to be a princess and stay in a castle:

Your mother was a hamster and your father smelled of elderberries!

Couldn't resist.

Friday was games and food and there was a fun bonfire, too. I really need to watch the things that come out of my mouth when it's late and I'm tired, lol!

 Kristen, Miranda, me and Laura having girl talk

On Saturday, we had a really great speaker, Brother Toma. He even sang for us, too. He talked about missionary work and it was great. Very spiritual. So many inspiring stories- you really never can guess who will join the church! You also can't be discouraged when something doesn't happen right away. If you recall Elder Nelson's talk in conference, it was Brother Toma's dad that he said would join the church and then offered to seal Brother Toma's mother and father. Ten years later, the dad joined the church and Elder Nelson did seal them.

So, we need to Speak, Ask, Live the gospel and Testify. After Brother Toma there was a panel of  bishops/stake presidents that answered submitted questions. It was good, though I kindof wished there had been a woman's perspective offered. I also wanted to answer when someone had submitted the question "I'm 30, why do I feel old?" Hey! We're not old! Quit comparing yourself to others! Don't listen to those who think you're nothing if you didn't get married by age 22!

Later on there were activities- I didn't care about the obstacle course or ziplining (a bunch of people got hurt ziplining so it was a good thing I didn't go cause I'm such a klutz!) so I stayed at the main cabin and carved a wicked awesome pumpkin:

I like how it glows:

So what was I for the Halloween dance?

Lady Gaga!

I know her music is way naughty, but I get a big kick out of her crazy costumes and thought it would be fun to design and make my own. You know someone is having fun making all those crazy things for her to wear! I decided if I was going to do this, then it had to be this year cause who knows how much longer she'll be popular! I actually wish I'd done this costume even crazier!

It took 5 rolls of duct tape (it comes in any color- sweet!), 3 T-shirts as the base of the overpiece, a wig and spray-painted shoes! I also found red polka dotted eyelashes! When I found these pants for $3 at Goodwill, it was a sign to do this costume! I collect fake eyelashes- I love wearing them, the crazier the better and this was a good opportunity to wear some! The trick was to do a modest costume- a challenge since she often wears leotards!

It was funny because most people understood what I was but some people thought that I was Fire or they'd never heard of Lady Gaga before...I was like, What rock are you living under?? I don't have tv or internet and I know full well who she is!

My pal Ivan and I both showed up in red duct tape (he's a tetris piece and had two buddies in other shapes/colors)...good minds think alike! Pretty redneck to make a costume out of duct tape, huh?

My galpals from my stake

These pics don't show it well, but I have these flamelike appendages coming off of my front. The outfit weighed a ton and was hot to wear but I had fun. The top and skirt were separate pieces so I could move and actually sit down. I had wanted to attach red hula hoops to me but the ability to sit down won out.

Me and my friend Jared

Oh, and I had "You and Me could write a Bad Romance" written on my back...I was at a YSA conference, after all! I don't think anybody saw it because the T-shirt crinkled up in the back. It was my own secret joke to myself- there's very little dating potential at these things!

There were lots of really great costumes at the dance, almost everyone dressed up. There were a group of girl M&Ms, Jack and Rose from Titanic, The Morton Salt girl, a peacock with a real peacock feather tail, the Red Queen, a Mountie (who is really Canadian!) and a bunch of other fun ones. I have a bunch of ideas swimming in my head for next year, I don't know which one will win!

Sunday was church there at the camp with a testimony meeting, it was nice. In all, I had a lot of fun being a big goofball this weekend and seeing people that I don't get to see all the time. A good mix of spiritual uplift and fun- which I needed.

Mental note: Next year make a figure flattering costume! Red duct tape does not help so much!

Girly Spider Webs

I can't claim to have come up with this idea, I saw the idea here on Betz White's craft blog and decided to try it myself. Out here it's pretty easy to find inexpensive (PA has plentiful antique malls and junk stores, I love it) handmade doily items, so I found some that were cute but that I wouldn't be pained to cut up.

So you take your doilies...

...and find some wooden embroidery hoops. Paint the outer hoop black and leave the inner one natural.

Add some ribbon and spiders and voila!

You get some pretty easy and fast girly Halloween decorations!

I used an 8" hoop on the square doily, and got a 6" and two 3" hoops from the rectangular one.

I wanted to make my own beaded spiders, but that didn't happen this year.

I think they're cute enough to have up all year- sans spiders!

I like decorating my hutch!

You like my little cast iron stove?

Have a Happy Halloween!

Thrift Store Spooky

I found these candelabras for literally $3 for the pair at a local thrift store. But what to do with them? They were almost cool, but not quite. They were pretty ugly in their original state- the center posts weren't even metal, but cheaply painted grey plastic. The arms were of some kind of base metal, definitely not the good stuff. And there was some sort of heavy stone at the bottom (you do not want to get socked in the head with one of these!). But I looked past all that and saw some potential.

 I took my happy can of black glossy spray paint, and voila!

Insta-macabre:

Painting them (it took several tries- lots of nooks and crannies!) makes the pieces more about their form then colors. I love how they turned out- I don't want to put them away!

I also love having an old beat up black piano- perfect for scenes like this! Usually we put the headstones outdoors, but this year I leaned them against the wall and added my spooky cloth (love $1 stores!), crows and my glitter skull. I like my Halloween to be a bit glam.

I so love Halloween- if I had oodles of $, you know what I'd do? I'd buy some big old cool spooky looking house (I'd own a bunch of houses) and devote it solely to Halloween. I'd have so much fun making it over into a deliciously spooky haunted mansion of my own. And I'd let people tour it, too. And so what if the shutters droop and the paint peels and there's cobwebs inside? It's a Halloween house, for crying out loud! That's the dream.

That, and a house devoted to Christmas.

Spooky

Well, it's getting to be that time of year. The leaves have turned and are falling. The air is getting crisper and crisper. So long as it doesn't snow in October like the 8 inches we got before Halloween last year, I'll be ok. We did get a bit of snow earlier in the month, it was weird to see colored trees covered in snow! We've decorated a bit. Laura and I carved pumpkins at fhe a week ago (gotta love being a big kid!) and put them on the porch.

Zebby wishes you all a Happy Halloween:

Our porch (we grew our own cornstalks!):


Last Saturday we had a spooky incident...there were hundreds of crows in the trees and flying around right by our house...they were quite loud as well. It was something right out of The Birds! They've never done that before! I took some spooky pics which turned out ok considering the trees were quite tall. The pics don't even show how many were out, it was crazy!

I'm off to a YSA conference this weekend near Gettysburg, gonna do Halloween right! It's been awhile since I've done that! Stay tuned for more pics!